AN "abusive and aggressive" husband belittled his wife in front of their young children by insulting her and pinning her against a wall, a court heard.
Scott Stewart was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday after admitting a charge of controlling and coercive behaviour.
The prosecution told the court Stewart, 39, “would get angry when he didn’t think she was doing enough around the house”.
He said: “She felt she was set up to fail, particularly as she was working and would get back home tired after a day’s work – that didn’t stop him calling her ‘lazy’, ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’.
“He also would quite often go out once or twice per week to the pub, get drunk, return and complain about washing up not having been done, washing not been done, and having not made a cooked meal for him.
“He called her ‘a slag’, ‘a fat ugly whore’, and if she dreamt of trying to fight back he would spit in her face.”
The court also heard how Stewart, of Heatherington Close, Colchester, would “constantly pester her for sex, even when she didn’t want it”.
The abuse took place over two years from 2021 to 2023, said John Livingston, prosecuting.
He continued: “He pushed her against the wall by her neck, causing her to feel like she couldn’t breathe.
“He became aggressive and abusive if she, in his eyes, fell short of what he believed were her duties.”
After a night out with at the Bull Pub in Colchester last February, Stewart is said to have told his wife: “It’s your wifely duty to give me sex – you need to satisfy my needs.”
When his wife sought refuge in the bathroom, he pursued her and put his fist through the door.
She then sent a text to a friend telling them to call the police.
When officers arrived, she told them she could not cope anymore.
Frank O’Toole, mitigating, said Stewart was “terribly ashamed of himself” and added his client was “very fortunate to have a wife so magnanimous, given what she has gone through".
“He has not in anyway tried to contradict anything that has been said,” he added.
Stewart was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years.
'You were a bully to your wife'
A JUDGE has condemned a defendant who behaved towards his wife as if he was "stuck in the Victorian era".
Scott Stewart was given a suspended jail sentence at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday for engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife.
In a victim impact statement, the survivor of Stewart’s abuse asked for the defendant not to be imprisoned because it would risk her and her children being made homeless.
Sentencing the defendant, Her Honour Judge Peters said: “Gosh, you were a bully to your wife – horrible, nasty, misogynistic attitudes more consistent with the last century.
“I hope you feel thoroughly embarrassed and utterly ashamed, and I hope you realise this is a serious offence.
“What you did to this woman over the course of two years was utterly disgusting – you used violence towards her, grabbing her, pushing her, hitting her, and holding her by the neck.
“You showed misogynistic and patriarchal attitudes not for the modern world – you were stuck in the Victorian era, if not earlier.”
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